Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Collapse OS

collapseos.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

131–140 of 323 posts

Re: Collapse OS

#131

Post by gdubs »

bcaa7f3a8bbc wrote: post #54

I don't think just developing a Z80 operating system is enough. The whole ecosystem needs to be preserved. In agriculture, we have the doomsday seed vault [0] just for this purpose. If we anticipate collapse of the current economic system or society, I think we should build a doomsday computer vault, that keeps everything we need to rebuild the computing industry in a underground bunker. It keeps everything we need i…

Bad news on that seed vault. [1]

1: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/may/19/arctic-s...

Re: Collapse OS

#134

Post by albandread »

I like the Collapse OS concept. I once typed Fig Forth from a booklet I ordered from America into a Sharp Z80 computer. Society was in the main computer free at the time. It was like the post collapse era. To restart the software industry from scratch; I recommend etching a modern version of that Fig Forth booklet onto stone tablets; perhaps provide a scheme interpreter written in forth as well. They will never need anything else.

Re: Collapse OS

#135

Post by 0xDEFC0DE »

headcanon wrote: post #46

Why does the author think the global supply chain will collapse in the next ten years? What scenario do they envision? Climate change? Will cost trillions of dollars and billions of lives, but will likely be played out over course of several decades. We will be stressing out about it but its not going to be electronics-ending apocalyptic Nuclear war? Please. The countries that have the capability are also level-heade…

The only reason the supply chain is at risk is because we dispose of a lot of electronics simply because there's a new version.

When the product lifecycle changes from 1 year to 10+ years, you'll find that people will just keep their stuff around longer and the demand on the supply chain goes way down.

Plus, there will be a shitload of data centers with capacity that will no longer be necessary (because of reduced devices making requests, segregated internet, less connectivity) in apocalyptic scenarios. Those can probably be re-purposed.

We haven't had to get clever about computer conservation because there's been so much supply.

Re: Collapse OS

#136

Post by maze-le »

AtlasBarfed wrote: post #120
blfr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're supposed to download it now and keep around. Just like preppers do with MREs and ammunition.

I said this further up the thread, but I'd rather have a raspberry pi, some screen cribbed from a smartphone, and some flash sticks. Why plan for less than the raspberry pi level?

Because the pi might be needed for more demanding workloads (networks, routing, sdr radio system). With this solution you can build low-tech control systems and programmable switches with a bit of logic where a raspi would be overkill.

But the doomsday scenarios aside, this is super useful as an educational device. It can teach people what computers actually are and how they operate on the lowest possible level.

Re: Collapse OS

#137

Post by harikb »

alexeichemenda wrote: post #129
bcaa7f3a8bbc wrote: post #54

I don't think just developing a Z80 operating system is enough. The whole ecosystem needs to be preserved. In agriculture, we have the doomsday seed vault [0] just for this purpose. If we anticipate collapse of the current economic system or society, I think we should build a doomsday computer vault, that keeps everything we need to rebuild the computing industry in a underground bunker. It keeps everything we need i…

Sorry if this is a naive question, but if the assumption is "doomsday", how would one know how to access vault and that it even exists?

The vault will have a fingerprint sensor, which will be stuck on an incomplete online firmware update.

Re: Collapse OS

#138

Post by cestith »

noir_lord wrote: post #29
exDM69 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the point is in that there are so many z80 chips out there for scavenging and that there are plenty of consumer devices that can be used (like TI calculators). Even if they stop making them today, the supply will last long.

They are also the cochroach equivalent of a processor, tough as hell, functional on a ropey power supply and can be used to make a simple 8 bit machine with very few ancillary chips - the reason they ended up in the sinclair zx's.

Similar reasons are likely why they were in the TRS-80.

Re: Collapse OS

#139

Post by cestith »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #25
alwaysanagenda wrote: post #3

The digital version of prep-er style hoarding for the not-far-off-inevitable apocalypse. Love the idea to make it run on simple 8-bit CPUs that will be scavenged Fallout-style, but seems to presume that no 'newer' technology would survive and be functional. Wonderful to see, none the less.

His idea presumes not that you can't scavenge newer technology, but that we can't replicate, repair, and manufacture more of it. Computers are built with computers. Advanced computers were built with less advanced ones. Sure, we can try to use some of what we found that survived, but will we be able to build manufacturing to build a modern processor with what we find that still works and the expertise we still have?…

The standards for a clean room to manufacture a 1980s home computer CPU or modern lower-tech microcontroller are far, far less stringent that the clean rooms for a 7nm or 10nm part. The photolithography equipment you need is far less precise and far more common. There are a lot more fab cranking out IoT device chips than Xeons.

Re: Collapse OS

#140

Post by steveklabnik »

SwellJoe wrote: post #26

I've been sort of half-assed working on a novel about a post-tech future (100+ years after apocalypse), where a handful of people retained some technology by virtue of having stored information about it in a manner that survived and a tradition of scavenging and trading and a sort of religion based on maintaining it in a working state. So, this is a fun read and thought experiment, even if an 8-bit computer is probab…

You might enjoy some of the Warhammer 40k lore; enough time has passed that technology is often literally indistinguishable from magic. A cult of "tech priests" are the only people who know how to speak to the souls that are inside the machines. It's heavily implied that they're not actually souls, of course, but that's how it's described to most people, as its easier to understand.
Post reply on HN